Real Estate & Property Law

After blogger outcry, legal publisher changes policy on required return of hard-copy casebooks

Updated: Aspen Publishers has apparently responded to an outcry over its plan to require law students to return their property casebooks at the end of the semester. The company came in for criticism after a professor at South Texas College of Law announced he may not switch to a new…

May 8, 2014 3:30 PM CDT

2 lawyers among 6 charged in $30M mortgage fraud conspiracy

Two lawyers are among six defendants federally charged in what authorities say was a $30 million mortgage fraud carried out in the New York City area between 2003 and 2008. All face a single count of conspiracy to commit mortgage fraud, Newsday reports. The charge carries a maximum prison term…

May 6, 2014 6:50 PM CDT

Widow who lost $280K house for $6 in unpaid interest vows appeal after judge upholds sale

A Pennsylvania widow is vowing to appeal a ruling upholding the sale of her $280,000 home for failure to pay $6.30 in interest on a tax bill paid six days late. “I’m going to fight it until my dying day,” Eileen Battisti, 53, told TribLive. The Associated Press, Forbes, McClatchy…

May 1, 2014 2:01 PM CDT

Dad puts 2 large photo posters at Navy son’s grave, leading to litigation

Fred Molai says he purchased 15 plots at Standing Rock Cemetery in Kent, Ohio, before creating a shrine to his dead son there that is 16 feet wide and eight feet high, covering only five of the plots. In addition to a tombstone engraved with the picture of Adam Molai,…

Apr 28, 2014 11:30 AM CDT

Lawyer seeks crowdfunding for online estate-planning game

A lawyer with plans to develop online games that educate consumers is seeking crowdfunding for one offering, about estate planning. Stephanie Kimbro writes at Virtual Law Practice that her game, Estate Quest, features a scenario where players are detectives, getting different cases about decedents who didn’t plan their estates properly.…

Apr 25, 2014 8:25 PM CDT

300 apartment residents win $2.45M settlement in class action over bedbugs

Some 300 elderly and disabled residents of two apartment buildings in Des Moines, Iowa, have won an agreement to pay a $2.45 million settlement in a class action over bedbugs. It provides for each plaintiff to get between $200 and $6,000 over an infestation that created habitability issues, resulting in…

Apr 25, 2014 3:00 PM CDT

Damage from neighbor’s exploding body not covered by condo insurance policy, appeals court rules

When Judy Rodrigo’s next-door neighbor died in 2007, it was some time before the body was discovered. Eventually, the body decomposed, causing significant damage to Rodrigo’s condominium in Jupiter, Florida. After her insurance company refused to settle a property claim for what Rodrigo thought it was worth, she sued State…

Apr 25, 2014 11:55 AM CDT

Judge nixes lawyer’s suit in law firm flooring dispute, tells him to pay contractor legal fees

A prominent New York attorney has seen the swift dismissal of a multi-count lawsuit he filed against a contractor hired to perform a build-out and install new flooring at his Staten Island law firm. The attorney wound up with a court order to pay his opponent $10,500 instead of receiving…

Apr 22, 2014 3:45 PM CDT

Owner of Brooklyn bar sues landlord over lease provision prohibiting ‘gay or lesbian’ bar

A Brooklyn, N.Y., bar owner is suing his landlord over a lease provision that he says prohibits him from catering to a “gay or lesbian” clientele. John McGillion, owner of the Brooklyn bar Lulu’s, is asking a Brooklyn Supreme Court judge to declare the provision “invalid,” the New York Post…

Apr 21, 2014 8:26 PM CDT

Insurer sues Chicago and surrounding towns over ‘geysers of sewer water’ in policyholders’ homes

A major insurer has filed a class action suit contending that officials in Chicago, nearby towns and the area’s water reclamation district have known for decades more storm water storage capacity was needed to prevent flooding but have not provided it. As a result, says the lawsuit filed by Farmers…

Apr 21, 2014 3:10 PM CDT

Feds used ‘big fish’ to ‘testify down’; risky strategy led to acquittals of 2 lawyers

A rare and risky trial practice has been front and center in two recent federal trials in New York City, resulting in the acquittals of two lawyers and another defendant who had faced 35 counts in one of the two cases. Using cooperating “big fish” as witnesses to “testify down”…

Apr 21, 2014 2:00 PM CDT

Case of lost painting offers lessons in auction law; will buyer get $43K for missing $21K artwork?

A little over a year ago, a New Orleans art broker purchased an impressionist painting at a Maryland auction for $21,500. However, the nearly 100-year-old painting by Ellsworth Woodward disappeared before the buyer, Amanda Winstead, could collect it. She sued and was awarded $43,500 by a New Orleans court, even…

Apr 16, 2014 4:09 PM CDT

Real estate firm chief and ex-associate charged in $1M ‘short sale’ mortgage-fraud scheme

Two New York lawyers have been charged with bilking owners and lenders of $1 million in a short-sale scheme they allegedly operated while working at the a Long Island real estate firm. However, an attorney representing one of the defendants, Kenneth Schwartz, says his 64-year-old client wasn’t aware of the…

Apr 14, 2014 4:10 PM CDT

Attorney who complained to state AGs about law firm is now herself facing scrutiny

A Kentucky lawyer who wrote the attorney general’s office in 40 states expressing concern about the operations of a Florida law firm for which she formerly worked is now herself facing a legal ethics case over similar allegations. Michele Stephens got a letter (PDF) last week from the disciplinary board…

Apr 9, 2014 10:45 PM CDT

Attorney accused of stealing nearly $30M before his suicide; law firm bankruptcy has recovered $85K

Before he apparently jumped to his death from the roof of his Long Island, N.Y., office in 2010, attorney Jay Korn stole nearly $30 million from clients and other would-be real estate investors in a Ponzi scheme, investigators say. So far, $85,000 has been collected on their behalf in the…

Apr 9, 2014 6:25 PM CDT